The ingredients stockpiled in Lush's Toronto factory seem more like items you'd expect to find at a conceptual new bakery. Within the first few minutes of my tour of the warehouse last month, I saw vats of seaweed-derived glitter, fresh fruit, avocados, and Pop Rocks — just a handful of the hundreds of food-grade ingredients the brand's employees go through daily.
I was there to put on an apron and moonlight as one of those employees for a day — something I've secretly wanted to do ever since I purchased my first tub of Angels on Bare Skin and saw that each product is made by one individual (the sticker proves it).
Since the Angels on Bare Skin cleanser was the first Lush product I fell in love with (and one of the brand's best-selling skin-care products), I figured I had to try my hand at concocting it. The ingredients are pretty simple — almond meal, glycerin, kaolin clay, and essential oils — but they pack one hell of a punch.
Lush compounder Violeta, who has been working with the brand for over seven years, helped me create my very own blend of the cleanser. First, she taught me how to siphon out and weigh each ingredient before dumping them into a massive mixer to create a thick, Play-Doh-like clay. Once I'd mixed my concoction, we hopped over to the rolling station where we flattened our work, folded in a layer of lavender buds, and rolled the product out into a Yule log-shape.
The finishing touch? We wrapped the roll and added Violeta's compounding sticker on the container, which proudly states: "This product was made by Violeta." She even gave me my own sticker to take home, in a nod to the role I played in this pot's creation. Check out the video above to watch the process unfold, learn about how each ingredient in the cleanser helps your skin, and get inspired to DIY your beauty routine.